Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - August 2, 2008
I am honoured to be here today and very pleased to bring you the warm personal greetings of our IFRC Secretary General Bekele Geleta and our colleagues in the Secretariat in both Geneva and in the Americas zone.
Let me echo our Vice President Raymond Forde in also warmly thanking the Mexico Red Cross Society for hosting this launch of the Red Crescent Global Alliance in the Americas.
HIV remains a very serious issue for humanity and that is why it is a core priority in the Federation's Global Agenda.
The purpose of our HIV Global Alliance, endorsed by the General Assembly, is to scale-up the International Federation's worldwide efforts to reduce vulnerability to HIV and its impact.
Our approach is quite straightforward: we believe that if we can simplify what we should do and harmonise how we do it, we can do much more and much better, à..provided, of course, that we work together.
We call this the "seven ones" - and it is at the heart of the Federation's new operating model. Thus, all our HIV programmes in all National Societies have common objectives, strategies, and indicators for tracking results.
The four key outputs are:
- preventing further HIV infection;
- expanding treatment, care and support;
- reducing stigma and discrimination; and
- strengthening National Society capacities to deliver.
Globally, we have made a joint commitment to double the combined Red Cross Red Crescent action by 2010.
This may sound somewhat ambitious but we take courage and strength from our members, volunteers, staff, and supporters who are determinedly with us along the way.
The journey today to Mexico City has been long: we set out from Johannesburg in November 2006 and travelled via Nairobi, Beijing, Bangkok, and Dakar to get here, and we are going on to Suva, Delhi, Budapest, and Cairo before this part of the voyage to 2010 is done.
There have been intermediary stops to share knowledge and skills in Panama City, Tashkent, and Kuala Lumpur. Along the way, some 90 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have started walking together - in the same direction, and side by side.
And so we welcome here the latest recruits who are now "walking the talk": our National Societies of Argentina, Belize, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Jamaica.
The Steering Committee of the HIV Global Alliance - some of whose members are present here including my co-chair the Deputy Secretary General from Malawi Red Cross Ethel Kaimila - hope that other National Societies from this continent will also join the voyage.
There is space for all, and no one has to be left out.
As you can see here, the commitment and ambitions of the Americas National Societies that are joining the HIV Global Alliance are impressive. They propose to scale-up their efforts seven-fold and in seeking just CHF22.3 million over three years, this represents remarkable value for money for any savvy investor.
I hope that all our partners will be fully supportive.
What can we advise our colleagues in the 10 National Societies here that are embarking on their scaled-up HIV programmes?
To begin, they can be confident in the excellent models of HIV work they already have in the Americas and of which we can be proud eg the "'taxis" campaign', the "together we can" work, "the Faces" campaign; and "club 25"). We have even adapted them for global use.
At the same time, the Americas face some special challenges.
Disappointingly, despite all the resources and capacities available in this richest continent, no Latin American and Caribbean country has experienced a significant drop in overall HIV prevalence and though the overall general population prevalence rate is low, the absolute numbers are approaching 2 million. 11 of the top 15 HIV prevalence rate countries outside Africa come from the Americas.
The Caribbean Region continues to have the second highest HIV prevalence rate in the world. This could be for a number of reasons.
First, the level of stigma and discrimination seems to be very high - considering the levels of education and economic development on the continent. This must be crucial for the Red Cross to address at community level.
Second, are we doing enough in high risk behavior contexts? This calls for more targeted - rather than generalised - approaches.
Third, one is struck by the profound socio-culturally based gender inequalities: despite huge progress over the past decade in female education and female participation in the most important sectors of the productive economy.
Why? Is it the men who are refusing to change? Is this a job for the community-based shaping of social attitudes?
Fourth, gender-based violence (domestic, sexual) against a background of a generalised increase in social violence is particularly disturbing.
Fifth, what is remarkable is the extent to which the whole continent is "on the move". Migration - for social and economic reasons, some of which is forced migration - is a serious contextual factor for HIV.
The Americas are a relatively high income zone, and the approach of the HIV Global Alliance should focus on influencing government policies (to make them more equity oriented and community directed) and on knowledge transfer - rather than on resources transfer (except for the 3 or 4 poorest countries).
As auxiliary to Governments, our Red Cross Societies could run certain HIV services but these should be paid for by governments who can well afford to do so, and are receiving funds from the development banks and the Global Fund for this purpose.
Most resource mobilization will have to be done in-country and regionally. The private sector can also be a much stronger contributor to Red Cross work than is currently the case here, and this should be considered in our future resourcing and partnerships strategy in the Americas.
In summary, if I may say so, the specificities of the Americas as a continent is that it is hugely advanced in so many ways but curiously behind in other ways.
This means that addressing HIV in the Americas is not simply a matter of up-scaling by a "frontal technical assault" on HIV transmission mechanics but more by expanding interventions that address direct and indirect risk factors eg stigma, gender inequality, the culture of social violence, male attitudes, and migration.
Because the Red Cross is so much in contact with families and communities, we should be particularly well-placed to innovate and establish a major role in this area of social transformation. In that context, as you know, "violence and "migration" are important new themes for the Federation as directed by the last General Assembly.
So yet again, HIV serves as a magnifying lens on other new challenges.
Perhaps the most important legacy of the HIV Global Alliance, more broadly, will be to point the way to a renewed Red Cross Red Crescent leadership on the critical social concerns of the day.
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